NYC Votes 2013: Joe Lhota

Republican candidate Joe Lhota served as Budget Director (1995-1998) and Deputy Mayor (1998-2001) under Mayor Giuliani. He then served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from 2011-2012. Prior to joining the Giuliani administration, Lhota was an investment banker for 15 years.

ON THE ISSUESOn education: "I want to begin a program where we start using online education programs because I believe that there are a lot of people, if not a generation, who we have failed because of our failing public school system, that they’re not prepared for good jobs, so what I’d love to be able to do is provide them with huge online education programs...For those folks that are on public assistance, who have a work fair requirement, I believe they can replace that work fair requirement with a study requirement so that they can bring themselves up and be able to take these new jobs." On the biggest difference between himself and de Blasio: "The biggest difference between Bill and myself, is our political philosophies. I do believe that Bill, if you believe in political philosophies along a continuum, Bill is, I believe, is on the far left. The very far left. I’m more center to right and in the middle. Some of my positions you know, are clearly not on the far right. I have arguments with, tremendous arguments with the Tea Party, my views on a woman’s right to choose, my viewpoints on, in addition that gay rights as well as same-sex marriage are very, very different from those on the right. I’m much more of a moderate. I’m a New Yorker, I was born here, I was raised here. I have a lot of the same moral beliefs and backgrounds that all New Yorkers have. And because of that, I believe I’m very, very different from Bill de Blasio. He does take at times, what I consider, to be very extremist points of view."On his sense of humor: "…when you run for office, it’s very, very different than being in charge of a project or being a deputy mayor or running a company, or any issue like that…because you know the people you’re talking to. When you run for mayor, you’re talking to everyone all at once and you know, it’s important that they, you know, you don’t offend anybody in the process. So, what you described as my irreverent humor or you know, my ability to say whatever I want to say and you know, enjoy that, is also a very, very dangerous thing when you run for office." Read the full transcript here...

August 29, 2013

ON THE ISSUESOn his first actions as mayor: "Well, jobs and the diversification of our economy is something I will focus on every single day as mayor. Right out of the box, I want to make sure that government of the city of New York gets out of the way of young entrepreneurs in this city. They are everywhere in all five boroughs, who the new generation, the millenials, all have this wonderful desire that they want to start their own businesses. You know, our generation, we aren’t used to, we didn’t grow up with computers and apps and all of that. They have and they want to create them. We have taxes that get in the way of making them open up their businesses. You know, our income tax, our corporate income tax is not just an income tax. If you don’t have income, they charge on capital. And the young folks are very concerned about it." On employee health care: "When it comes to employee collective bargaining agreements, I have said, it is very important that New York City workers pay, and begin the process of paying for their healthcare. Everyone, federal employees, state employees, the managerial employees at the MTA, I’m sure you pay for a portion of your healthcare. Some New Yorker City employees pay nothing, others pay one and a half percent, the average of New Yorkers’ employees pay about 25% of their healthcare. We have to begin the process of making sure that employees are on a fair basis with other employees."On stop and frisk: "Quite honestly, I will continue stop, question and frisk and, I will, what I will do different, is more intensive training of police officers and the community will hear about what that training is. And more importantly, I’ll create a more enhanced communication with the communities to understand what police officers are allowed to do within the law." Read the full transcript here...

That’s a good indication that this mayor is truly doing his part in giving service to the people. Being an official whether for small or big jurisdictions requires a great responsibility but if you’ll committed to serving the public all will become smooth and everything will follow. Keep up the good work Mayor!

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